Abor­tion fund set up

AM­S­TER­DAM: The Nether­lands is launch­ing a global fund to help women ac­cess abor­tion ser­vices to com­pen­sate for US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s ban on US fed­eral fund­ing for for­eign groups pro­vid­ing abor­tions or abor­tion sup­port for fam­ily plan­ning abroad.

The Dutch gov­ern­ment has held pre­lim­i­nary dis­cus­sions on the ini­tia­tive with other EU mem­bers who have re­sponded pos­i­tively.

Gov­ern­ments out­side the EU, com­pa­nies and so­cial in­sti­tu­tions will also be ap­proached.

Dutch of­fi­cials es­ti­mate Trump’s re­stric­tions will cause a fund­ing short­fall of $600 mil­lion over the next four years.